Based on the Landauer formalism, we demonstrate that the thermal conductance due to the propagation of Zenneck surface-phonon polaritons along a polar nanowire is independent of the material characteristics and is given by ${\pi }^2{k}_B^{2}T/3h$. The giant propagation length of these energy carriers establishes that this quantization holds not only for a temperature much smaller than 1 K, as is the case for electrons and phonons, but also for temperatures comparable to room temperature, which can significantly facilitate its observation and application in the thermal management of nanoscale electronics and photonics.

• Received 2 June 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.055901